Ensuring Quality Growth in Northfield

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Re: Ensuring Quality Growth in Northfield
From: Jeff Schulz, Northfield Town Manager
As new growth in housing and economic development opportunities increase in the Town of Northfield, we are excited to announce a Northfield citizen visioning project, made possible through a grant that fully funds the initiative.

The project will be a citizen-driven planning process, building on the Our Common Future sessions of last April and the follow-up citizen work. The project will produce a proposed Community Masterplan for the future growth and overall character—building form, function, land-use, and transportation - of Northfield’s two Village Centers and the Rte. 12 corridor in between them. To begin this project a citizen’s design workshop, known as a charrette, will be held beginning January 10th.

We hope you will participate in 3 targeted sessions:
1. An introductory Kick-Off Meeting on Friday January 10th, 6:00 pm at the Northfield High School Auditorium.
2. A Hands-On citizen’s design workshop the following Saturday January 11th, 9:00 am at the Northfield High School Cafeteria; and
3. A Work-In-Progress presentation Thursday the 16th, 6:00 pm at the Northfield High School Auditorium.

The charrette (which is a collaborative process of idea sharing) will be an intensive, six-day public planning process. The team will include designers, transportation planners, business owners, property owners, residents, town officials and staff, and YOU. The charrette process will produce a Community Vision Plan that clearly defines and maps the community desires for the future. That vision will provide suggestions for ensuring new development retains the quality standards of our community using a process known as Form-Based Code.

What will people be doing?
On Friday night people will learn the process ground rules and review the concepts for traditional communities (like Northfield), and the basics of Form-Based Codes. The following morning there will be a hands-on design exercise. Working in small groups, citizens will be asked to draw their specific vision for the future of Northfield onto an aerial photo, using pens, pencils and colored markers, guided by a facilitator from the design team. At the end of the day, each group will share their vision with the rest of the community.

These visions will be knitted together by the design team to create the Community Vision Plan, as described above. Following the hands-on session, the design team will run an open design studio at the Northfield Library Community Room, inviting the community to drop in on the work in progress, especially for those who missed the Saturday session, and share ideas.

At the end of the week, Thursday January 16th at 6:00 pm, the design team will give a Work-In-Progress presentation. This will include an early, in-progress, version of the Community Vision Plan, with:
• An Illustrative Masterplan drawing – showing potential infill development according to the Community Vision Plan.
• The core and foundation of a Form-Based Code, including an early version of a suggested regulating/character plan – and
• Three-dimensional and digital images illustrating potential concepts for future Northfield.

This is a planned opportunity for the community to let the design team know if they are on the right track.

When will it be?
• Friday, January 10th, 6:00 p.m. – Kickoff Event at the Northfield High School Auditorium.
• *Saturday, January 11th, 9:00 am to Noon – Citizens Hands Design Exercise at the Northfield High School Cafeteria.
• Open design studio at the Northfield Library Community Room, Sunday, January 12th through Thursday January 15th. The design studio will be open to the public Monday January 13th through Wednesday, January 15th 4 pm.
• Thursday, January 16th, at 6:00 pm – Work-In-Progress Presentation at the Northfield High School Auditorium.

For more information, please email Town Manager Jeff at jschulz@northfield.vt.us or call 802-485-9822. You will also be able to visit the project progress through our website, www. northfield-vt.gov.

We hope you will join us and provide your valuable input!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

FAQs
Q: Why are we doing this project?
A: We are arranging a public visioning workshop process in order to develop a Community Vision Plan. This plan will provide the framework for the town to consider additional zoning modifications based on a process known as Form-Based development regulations. This process can take the Our Common Future vision and concepts one step further by placing them in a physical Masterplan that will provide the framework possible revisions to our zoning The goal is to ensure that future growth in our community will retain the town’s character and ensure that new development will be affordable to construct, but also provide a reasonable standard of quality.
Q: What are the project boundaries?
A: The ________. See the attached map for the specific locations.
Q: Why don't we just use our current zoning?
Although well intended, the current zoning is not a good/the best tool to give us the orderly/positive, sustainable development we need going forward, and the vision laid out in the Town Plan (compact, walkable). Implementing some additional zoning guides that rely on a Form-Based Code can make it easy to build what the community wants and difficult to build what the community doesn’t want. Our current level of zoning could result in the construction of buildings that are out of character with the neighborhood and the citizens expectations.

Q: What is a form-based code?
A. It is a way of regulating development that controls building form first and building use second. Its goal is to produce a particular type of “place” or built environment, based on a community-endorsed vision plan.
A deeper explanation of form-based code can be found at https://formbasedcodes.org/definition/


 

Q: Do form-based codes regulate uses?
A. It can help to regulate uses when appropriate. Land use is not ignored but is managed using broad parameters that allow response to market economics. It would be theoretically possible to control uses as strictly in a form-based code as in a conventional zoning system; however, in the best contemporary form-based codes, building form is the primary regulation (particularly for mixed-use/Downtown districts), with broad parameters for permitted uses (as well as specific prohibitions for undesirable or inappropriate uses for a given district.)

Form-based codes tend to not be concerned with whether a storefront houses a bookstore, restaurant or coffee shop—in fact, there is an expectation that building uses will change over time and, except for health and safety issues, minimal review/regulations should be required when they do. Different use parameters may be established for different places if it is beneficial to the community.
Q: Do form-based codes create more bureaucratic red tape?
A: If implemented correctly, form-based code can streamline the development review process because it typically provides clear parameters and straightforward administration, when it is based on a Community Vision Plan. It should become easier to develop properties that follow the Vision Plan and meet the form-based code standards.
Q: Where else have form-based codes been used?
A. Historically in the United States, many towns regulated development through systems that were primarily form-based. (Two well-known examples are pre-WWII Chicago and Old Town Alexandria in Virginia.) More recently, they are increasingly popular in towns and cities, particularly those that are encouraging (traditional) walkable redevelopment and smart growth/sustainable development or are concerned about protecting/enhancing the existing form and character of the community (or a specific district.) Specific Vermont example include Winooski; Newport; and Williston (Taft Corners).
Northfield, of course, is not the same type of community as the ones listed here, and the process will be more focused on how form-based code will be good for Northfield, and where it will ensure that the community is not transformed to replicate many of these examples.

Some additional locations are: Columbia Pike in Arlington, VA; Denver, CO; Contra Costa County, CA; Iowa City, IA; Cedar Falls, IA; Cedar Rapids, IA; Fayetteville, AR; Columbia, MO; Peoria, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Overland Park, KS; Portsmouth, VA; East Lansing, MI; and Fremont, MI to name a few. In Vermont: Winooski, Williston, and Newport.
 

Q: Will adoption of a form-based code require changing our existing zoning?
A: Form-Based Codes can be adopted under a variety of scenarios, including modifying the existing zoning, creating a special district, or an overlay district. Form-Based Codes are very different than Conventional zoning, so for simplicity and consistency, it could be advantageous to modify the existing zoning with a new streamlined Form-Based Code for the areas where most of the development is likely to take place. .
Q: Will I have to change my building/business/house, etc.?
A. No (!) Existing buildings and uses will be “grandfathered in” under any new form-based code. Any new regulations will only take effect if an individual owner chooses to redevelop or expand significantly.